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Gujjar Tribe

The origins of the Gurjars are uncertain. The Gurjara clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of northern India. Some scholars, such as V. A. Smith, believed that the Gujjars were foreign immigrants, possibly a branch of Hephthalites (“White Huns”). D. B. Bhandarkar (1875-1950) believed that Gujars came into India with the Hunas, and the name of the tribe was sanskritized to “Gurjara”. He also believed that several places in Central Asia, such as “Gurjistan”, are named after the Gujars and that the reminiscences of Gujar migration is preserved in these names. General Cunningham identified the Gujjars with Yuezhi or Tocharians. In the past, Gujjars have also been hypothesized to be descended from the nomadic Khazar tribes, although the history of Khazars shows an entirely different politico-culture ethosThis argument is chiefly based on the assumption that the word “Gujjar” is derived from the word…